The increasing percentage of energy intake from carbohydrate had a significant protective effect (RR 0.96, Cl=0.94-0.99).

The strength of these associations was not diminished after adjustment for specific serum lipids, suggesting that serum lipids did not mediate the effect of diet on CHD mortality.

None of the dietary components were significantly associated with CHD mortality among those aged 60-79 years.

We conclude that future research must be directed toward better understanding the pathway between dietary intake and coronary disease as the current diet-lipid-heart hypothesis may be overly simplistic.